1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reagent dispensing system for an automatic analyzer that automatically performs a qualitative/quantitative analysis of a biological sample such as blood, urine, or the like, and an automatic analyzer using the same. More particularly, the present invention concerns an automatic analyzer that uses reagent containers each having an information recording medium on which information about a reagent contained in the reagent container is recorded, and that is capable of reliably reading the information recorded on the aforementioned information recording medium while allowing the reagent-container mounting density per unit area to be increased.
2. Description of the Related Art
The automatic analyzer that automatically performs a qualitative/quantitative analysis of a biological sample such as blood, urine, or the like, has become prevalent mainly in medical laboratories and large hospitals, since it can meet the expectations for improvement in the quantitativity of analysis result and the speedup of analysis. The measurement principle of the automatic analyzer is to mix a sample that changes in color as a result of reacting with a component to be analyzed, with a sample, and then to measure the change in the color of the sample. Conventionally, the measurement of this change in color has been performed by a laboratory technician using a calorimetric table, whereas in the automatic analyzer, the measurement of the change in color is performed by means of a photometer, thereby achieving improvement in the quantitativity of analysis result and the speedup of analysis.
In recent year, in order to improve the operator-friendliness of the apparatus, various techniques have been proposed. One of them is to record information, such as the kind of reagent, on an information recording medium such as a barcode label, and to automatically identify the kind of the reagent by reading this information recording medium. When the operator must input the kind of reagent into a computer, if the kind of reagent is inputted in error, there occurs a possibility of an erroneous analysis result being reported, whereas the method using the information recording medium as described above would be expected to reduce load upon the operator, and also decrease possibility of causing an error in analysis result.
With the diversification of analysis items, market demands an automatic analyzer capable of mounting thereon more reagents and simultaneously having a compact size. However, the barcode, which is the mainstream of conventional information recording media, is read by an optical manner, and therefore, mounting reagent containers at high density unfavorably inhibits the barcode from being read. To solve this problem, Japanese Patent No. 3274325 proposes to arrange reagent disks along respective circumferences of the double concentric circles, and simultaneously, in order to read the barcode of the reagent container on the inner peripheral side, this patent document proposes to provide a portion devoid of reagent in a row of reagent containers on the outer peripheral side, and read the barcode of the reagent container on the inner peripheral side, from the aforementioned portion. This method allows the enhancement of the mounting density of reagent containers and the identification of reagent by the barcode to be mutually compatible.